Founder Profile

Pew is an independent nonprofit organization – the sole beneficiary of seven individual trusts established between 1948 and 1979 by four generous and committed siblings. Learn more about one of our founders: Mary Ethel Pew.

In this episode

America’s National Park System spans more than 400 sites and received more than 331 million visits in 2016. Supported by a complex infrastructure—including roads, sewer systems, buildings, restrooms, and trails—the park system is beginning its second century in need of rejuvenation. In this episode of “After the Fact,” host Dan LeDuc discusses the $11.9 billion backlog of park maintenance with Marcia Argust, director of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ campaign to restore America’s parks. He also speaks with Phil Francis, a retired Blue Ridge Parkway superintendent who spent 40 years with the National Park Service (NPS); and Bryan Atchley, the mayor of Sevierville, Tennessee, a gateway community to the Great Smoky Mountains. To listen and to learn more, visit pewtrusts.org/afterthefact. (Sounds of nature recorded by the NPS’ Jennifer Jerrett and Montana State University’s Acoustic Atlas.)